Hollywood mogul Harvel Weinstein has been in some deep doo-doo over sexual harassment charges , and now I just learned that Andy Signore of Screen Junkies has been fired for harassment, too. Add these incidents to Bill O'Reilly and the late Roger Ailes and it seems there's a lot of this going around. Not really a big surprise, honestly, but there sure is a lot of this kind of news coming out lately.

Weinstein's behavior has been publicly known for years; I don't even think it qualifies as an open secret, since many of these stories were documented in Peter Biskind's DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES, published in 2004. It's good he couldn't stay untouchable forever.

I feel like this serial disgracing of high-profile habitual predators is our culture compensating for electing Trump president instead of driving him into exile.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are now coming out with their stories. Which mystifies me. These two women are hardly struggling actresses starting out in the business. Surely these actresses had enough cache in the industry that they didn't have to wait until after several other actresses came forward. Women who for years have had the eyes and ears of the world on them, acted as leaders in other social issues and voices for womens rights, had full access to the media to call out predators like Weinstein.

I know similar things happen in other industries, but perhaps not to the same scale. Hollywood is about opportunities and there are no doubt sleazy people looking to exploit a situation.

Sleazy people exist in every industry, job, location. I'm sure a supermarket has a sleazy manager or two. But it's magnified no doubt in Hollywood because of the egos. Sleaze is sleaze (and always uncomfortable for the woman), but I'd wager the average supermarket manager doesn't have the ego, narcissism and opportunities like a studio CEO or a popular actor.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are now coming out with their stories. Which mystifies me. These two women are hardly struggling actresses starting out in the business. Surely these actresses had enough cache in the industry that they didn't have to wait until after several other actresses came forward. Women who for years have had the eyes and ears of the world on them, acted as leaders in other social issues and voices for womens rights, had full access to the media to call out predators like Weinstein.

-----

For years Bill Cosby's behavior was ignored by the public, despite accusations, lawsuits, and settlements until a male comedian started making a stink about it in his act. The current POTUS was caught on a hot mic bragging about "grabbing [women] by the pussy", and he still got elected. Why women stay silent should not be mystifying at all. Instead of blaming them, focus on the asshole predators.

I was not attempting to assign blame on the women. Cosby's accusers were women who, for the most part were outside the industry, limited in their ability to 'punch up' until such a time where Cosby was no longer at the top of his field. Trump's shit-talking about his prowess with women has yet to produce much anything tangible in terms of credible accusations of criminal activity, to my recollection (although certainly lecherous and creepy).

Blame can certainly be spread around the industry if it was as widely known an 'open secret' as it's been said, men and women alike. That everyone in Hollywood kissed his ass and worshiped the ground he walked on - while turning a blind eye or claiming plausible deniability about his 'casting couch' activities - leads me to believe that these denouncements of Weinstein are all spin to save face. That so many owe their careers to him, it comes across that they don't feel as bad about him doing it, as they are that he got caught.

In the discussions with my female friends in the aftermath of the Trump tape, it became heartbreakingly apparent how very common and normalized sexual harassment and assault is. All of them had a story. And most of them hadn't really talked about it or in some cases, even thought about it, until it became a national conversation. This is not something unique to Weinstein or Hollywood.

I was a frequent visitor to AIN'T IT COOL NEWS in it's early days, but it has since been superseded by a number of similar sites that do a better job of reporting the same news items.

The recent allegations against Knowles have resulted in a mass exodus from the site by many long-time contributors, and now apparently, Knowles' sister has taken the reins of running the operation in his absence.

The site has been a shadow of it's former self for years now, and in light of recent events, one wonders how much longer it will have a presence on the web.

I had to look up Don Simpson (I figured you didn't mean the comic book creator by that name, James). He died in 1996, and it seems that it was good riddance in that case. Sad that this still goes on. I'm realistic enough to know it won't ever fully go away, but it's alarming how prevalent it still remains.

This is the thing that truly bothers me as much as the fact that Weinstein got away with it for so long: People knew about it. Women were fully aware of what he was doing for decades and said nothing. They allowed it to continue and never said a word. Many women were affected by this that didn't need to be affected.

I bring that up because of the recent news story about Rose McGowan calling out Ben Affleck as a "liar". That Affleck knew all along that Weinstein was doing this. HOWEVER, she mentions nothing about the fact that she herself knew as well and she said nothing..... since 1997. For 20 years she said nothing. And yet she has the audacity to call out Affleck for condemning Weinstein.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Yes, McGowan was a victim, and no one should ever go through what she did, but that doesn't mean she can absolve herself by calling out someone else for knowing the exact same thing she knew for 20 years. As mentioned above, more powerful women than she are coming forward with allegations. My question to them is: What took you so long???

McGowan signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of the settlement of her civil suit again Weinstein.

Women take so long to come forward because they know, no matter what they say, no matter how many witnesses, there are always going to be guys who will judge them, dismiss them, and mandeclaim how to address sexual harassment and sexual assault from the safe perspective of willful ignorance.

I bring that up because of the recent news story about Rose McGowan calling out Ben Affleck as a "liar". That Affleck knew all along that Weinstein was doing this. HOWEVER, she mentions nothing about the fact that she herself knew as well and she said nothing..... since 1997. For 20 years she said nothing. And yet she has the audacity to call out Affleck for condemning Weinstein.

My impression was that Rose McGowan was calling out Ben Affleck for giving the impression that he was just learning about this. According to her, she had told him and his response indicated that he was aware that he had done that to other women. She wasn't condemning his silence; she was condemning him for pretending to be ignorant.

QUOTE:

I just don't understand why decades passed before it came to light.

Because we re-victimize women for being sexual assault and harassment victims.

When a 6'3, 240 lbs, former NFL linebacker is afraid of coming forward about being sexually assaulted, I don't understand why we judge women who are in a more vulnerable position for staying silent and trying to move on.

In a way, when you have a situation where a very powerful and influential figure is abusing someone who won't fight back out of fear of retaliation, that intimidation extends to other parties not directly involved. Not to excuse anyone who knew about Weinstein's behavior, but even some of those people were victims on a certain level in that they likely feared his wrath if they said anything.

Then again, in Hollywood you have a community that willingly will overlook atrocious acts of one of their own based on how popular thar person is within the industry. Roman Polansky raped a child, and people like Meryl Streep have literally given the man a standing ovation (not for that evil deed, but still) after his horrendous crime was well-known.

So, were the celebrities whom were aware of Weinstein's behavior scared of reprisal to say something, or willing to turn an eye because he was otherwise a respected figure in their circles?

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum